The Monsters in the Closet, The Bomb and other Natural Disasters

When we were in elementary school, it was during the cold war with Russia. We had one neighbor with a bomb shelter, but that was for their personal use in case of a bomb. The school would periodically dismiss us early and we would practice walking home quickly so we would be “prepared” in case of a bomb….I’m not sure what everyone else’s plan was, but pop’s building had a bomb shelter and we knew we would be taken there and be safe. Hindsight tells me that this might not have been exactly true but as a child I never worried about it. Pop tells me now that I am living in a bad location in Monument, Colorado - not close enough to Norad (Cheyenne Mountain) to be killed by a nuclear bomb, and not far enough away to avoid radiation poisoning…

Pop’s building also had a special air- conditioned room for their first computer. It was massive and I’m not sure it even did much more that simple math but we were very impressed. When I got my first calculator in college it cost $80, was made by Texas Instruments and it added, subtracted, multiplied, divided and did square roots. I was THRILLED. Now I can get one at the grocery store for less than $5 that will do this and more and run on solar power as well. Just for fun I purchased a slide rule for Raymond’s 16th birthday this year.

We also had earthquake drills at school. We practiced huddling under our desks to avoid being hit by falling debris. We often had small earthquakes as Santa Barbara is on top of the San Andreas Fault. On a few occasions I can remember glasses falling off the shelf in the pantry and I think one time a gas line cracked going to our water heater. Pop had made Allison’s and my beds. Mine was set on top of drawers and during earthquakes shook more than Al’s since hers was low to the ground.

Speaking of rooms, Allison and I did have our differences. I was quite the neat nick and she was quite a bit more relaxed in her house keeping activities. At one point we even drew a line on the floor splitting the room in half. I imagine I was prissy and annoying but I did like things tidy, and still do to this day.

At night Allison and I had elaborate rituals we went through once we were in bed. We had complicated combinations of words we would say to each other before we went to sleep. I can’t quite remember what they were, but do remember we observed them obsessively. We were also quite sure something terrible would come out of the closet in the dark and we would NOT go to bed with the closet open. We often had laughing attacks in bed and chatted lots. If it went on too long we would hear pop walking, s-l-o-w-l-y   d-o-w-n   t-h-e   h-a-l-l. By the time he got to our door the giggles would have miraculously disappeared and we would be feigning sleep.

I was also positive that something/someone horrible would jump out of the freezer in the garage- though only at night. I did not EVER want to go into the garage at night to get anything, even my most beloved ice cream. If I HAD to, I was always sure to turn on the light first.